CANNA-NEWS
YO U CA N’T H AV E YO U R GOAT S I N T H E GA R D E N IN N OVAT IV E BUSINESS TOOLS FOR IN D U S TRIAL-SIZED C ANNABIS FAR MS WRITER / SCOTT PEARSE
PHOTO / COURTESY OF KUBO GROUP TRiQ INC.
Matt Cohen is the founder and CEO of TRiQ systems in Bend, Ore., a company designing solutions for cultivating and harvesting cannabis at an industrial level. As the adage goes, you want to be the person selling picks and shovels during a gold rush. For Cohen, that means providing the solutions cultivators need when the average size of cannabis gardens is starting to be measured in acres.
Matt Cohen - Founder and CEO of TRiQ systems
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS IN CANNABIS Cohen has been honing his skills as a cultivator for over 30 years, beginning his career in Northern California. Perceiving a loosening of laws, Cohen co-founded the Emerald Growers Association with the intention of creating a trademark for cannabis grown in the Emerald Triangle. “We wanted to create the Napa Valley of cannabis,” Cohen said. His intention was to protect the businesses created before full legalization became a reality. While Cohen advocated for branded Emerald Triangle produce to be certified sustainable, some growers would only agree to guidelines that included aspects of permaculture. Cohen knew that legalization would bring regulation. “I was saying your reality today is not really reality,” he said. “If this is going to be a real business, you have to have a payroll, meet health codes, and have wheelchair accessibility and proper
zoning. You can’t have goats walking through your garden, or those plants are going to need to be tested for E. coli. Your whole business is going to change.” Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t find a common set of cultivation guidelines that the majority of growers in the Emerald Triangle could agree on. The heritage, beauty, and name recognition of the Emerald Triangle should ensure that the area benefits from cannabis tourism, but whether it remains an area of high production is difficult to predict. “It’s not going to be a retired construction worker with 50 plants in his backyard who automatically stays in business,” he said. “You’ve got to have business acumen, be able to raise capital, manage people, and control marketing, distribution, and sales. You’re still going to have boutique companies with one or two acres for example, growing exclusively
equatorial sativas and supplying a local area like a regional microbrewery.” Regardless, if cultivators want the public to be able to buy their product, it might require putting the goats in a pen. As for the future regulatory environment, Cohen said that full legalization within five years would be likely. He also predicted that canopy restrictions would be eliminated. In a full legal environment, the closest cultivation comparison is to compare cannabis to tomatoes. “The cannabis flower market will be completely taken over by hi-tech greenhouses, just like the tomato industry,” he said. “The only tomato you can buy now that is grown outdoors is a seasonal heirloom. Indoor cannabis cultivation isn’t sustainable, it’s not cost effective, but growing outdoors offers no environmental controls.”